Lullaby
by So Teeny
Summary: [Post Nina][One shot] Will you sing for me, Mister? Mama always sang for me… Nina has a nightmare and asks for something awkward from Ed.


**Lullaby  
**by Lain Blackchurch

**Rating: **PG  
**Summary:** "Will you sing for me, Mister? Mama always sang for me…" Nina has a nightmare and asks for something awkward from Ed. (Post-Nina)

He sat up by the candlelight as the rain came down heavily; smacking the roof with it's over bearing clashes of thunder. Looking up at the clock above his head, he sighed. No, the Second Lieutenant wouldn't be picking him up from Tucker's house. The Fullmetal Alchemist was told to 'stay put' as they had said. The overbearing voices of his superiors came into hearing range.

"_You'll spend the night over there…"_came the voice of Colonel Mustang over the phone again, and back into his head. _"It's too bad for me to send someone over and pick you up. Is that understood…?"_

And Edward had agreed weakly, not at all discouraged about spending the night. Alexander, Nina, and Tucker treated Al and him like family, he could really care less whether he had to go back at all. Nina's tiny whimpers could be heard down the hall. Ed stood up, stretching slightly, and hearing her whispered "Mister? Mister?" He looked at Al with a faint smile. 

"I'll be right back…" he muttered, walking out the door and leaving Al in the study with a book in his lap. If the armor helmet could smile, it probably would have.

Ed stepped into Nina's dark room, looking at her through the shadows. "Mister? Is that you?"

"It's me, Nina. What is it?" he asked, kneeling beside her bed with a calm smile on his face, hoping to brighten the apparently scared child.

"Mister, I had a dream. It was a bad dream… I don't wanna' go back to sleep."

"Well you'll have to go back to sleep Nina." He whispered. "How else will you get the energy to play with Al and me?"

"But…" Nina's eyes looked downward, her frown softened, becoming more emotional in a way. Small tears brimmed at the precipice of her eyes as she suddenly clung onto Edward's shirt in a fit of anxiety. "Don't go, Mister! Please don't go… They'll come back and get me."

Ed cocked his head. "Who's going to come and get you?" he asked. Nina's mouth neared his ear, her hand cupping the edge of her mouth so that it stayed between herself and Edward.

"It's the monster…" she whispered. "He says that he's going to get me." Ed's golden oculi relaxed as he sat back on his heels.

"A monster, huh?" he asked, saying no more because that next thing that would have come out of his mouth would have been: 'Damn, you kids believe _anything_.' But he couldn't say that, not to Nina. He waited patiently for her to suggest something.

"Will you sing for me, Mister? Mama _always_ sang for me…" she whispered in a tiny voice, still hugging Edward. Ed stiffened slightly. No, he had never sung before, and no, he wasn't going to ever try, but something caused him to answer positively.

"What… what did she used to sing?" he questioned, figuring that if he was going to sing he might as well know what she requested of him as a song.

"Well… she used to sing the song about the bird…" she said timidly. "Do _you_ know the song about the bird, Mister?" Ed paused, thinking back a bit.

The song about a bird… a… bird. What the hell was she talking about?

_'Hush little children…'_

He was silent as Nina's tears began to seep into his black shirt.

_'Don't say a word…'_

Mom?

_'Mama's gonna' by you a mocking bird…'_

"So do you, Mister? Do you know the song about the birdie?"

He smiled and nodded, lifting her from under her covers, wrapping them around her legs and holding her close to his chest, rocking back and forth as his own mother once did with two children in her arms.

_"Hush little Nina, don't say a word…"_

He paused, when Nina suddenly piped up with a replacement for 'mama' So she knew. In his ear, she whispered, "Mister…"

_"Mister's gonna' buy you a mocking bird…"_

Al listened from the doorway as his brother sang softly to Nina, and on the inside, he smiled.


End file.
